The Republic of Moldova is heading towards a pivotal parliamentary elections come the end of February, and so of course, too, are the propaganda outlets busy with their usual brand of scaremongering and made-up horseshit.

Normally, I greatly respect Deutsche Welle (DW), the German state-run media outlet. Their coverage in English is quite good, and their coverage of Romania is some of the fairest, most balanced, and all-around authentic journalism that I’ve seen anywhere in the Romanian language.

But when it comes to Moldova, DW gets a little crazy:

The breakaway Moldovan region of Transnistria has probably the largest weapons depots in eastern Europe. There are concerns that the remainder of these arms stockpiles could be used in a future military conflict.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Transnistria – the region on the other side of the Dnjestr River – declared its independence, but was not officially recognized by any other country. The former Soviet Republic of Moldova, in fact, lost control of the swath of land but still considered [sic] it to be part of its sovereign territory.

A huge weapons depot is located in Cobasna under the control of Transnistrian forces and Russian peacekeeping troops who have been stationed there since fighting broke out in 1992.

First of all, the name of the river is spelled “Dniestr” or “Dniester” but never “Dnjestr” in English.

Secondly, it is the Russian Army which has full control over the Cobasna depot. This is called the OGRF (Operational Group Russian Forces) in English and is completely separate from the Russian peacekeeping mission. There are approximately 1,000 guys whose full-time job is protecting this depot.

Third, the English in this piece sucks and contains several errors that are making my head hurt, so I cleaned up most of it in the quoted parts used here.

Although the Russian Federation committed itself at the OECD Summit in 1999 to withdrawing its forces from Transnistria, there are still around 1,500 Russian troops deployed there at the Cobasna depot.

No. What happened in 1999 is extremely well-documented.

Russia, under Boris Yeltsin, agreed to remove its (non-peacekeeping) troops from Transnistria, but only if the 1999 agreement was ratified by all parties. The United States never signed the document and so it never came into force.

Doh…

Reporters of the investigative project RISE Moldova last year uncovered just how easy it was for someone to get hold of ammunition from Transnistria. The reporter said they were interested in purchasing weapons and were in possession of a grenade launchers [sic] with the corresponding ammunition.

The traders had even promised to deliver any type of weapon they wanted. The whole “transaction” was carried out in the Moldovan capital Chisinau.

Uh, this just goes to proves that it’s the Republic of Moldova which is the outlaw state.

Good luck trying to buy a grenade launcher inside Transnistria!

The former Moldovan Defense Minister Vitalie Marinuta also sees other dangers. In an interview with DW, the general said that, according to his information, which has been confirmed by international organizations, there are still around 20,000 tons of ammunition for artillery and infantry as well as other military equipment stored there.

A study by the Moldovan Academy of Sciences has warned that the impact of an explosion of the depots would be “equivalent to the atomic bombs from Hiroshima and Nagasaki,” said Marinuta.

First of all, the Moldovan Academy of Sciences did not come up with that calculation. It’s been widely known in Russian academic circles since at least 2005, which makes total sense as the Russian government is officially responsible for guarding it.

Secondly, the reason that Marinuta, a US-trained soldier and long-time American sycophant, knows what’s in Cobasna is because the OSCE visits the depot, and the Russian Army publicly discusses their mission there all the time.

Open Secret

In fact, there is probably nothing less secret going on in Transnistria than the Russian Army mission to guard the huge weapons depot at Cobasna.

Indeed, here’s a Russian news reporter visiting the site in October 2018:

Here’s some Russian soldiers practicing putting out fires in Cobasna:

These kinds of drills happen all the time simply because of the tremendous danger of one of these ammo piles cooking off (exploding spontaneously).

Some of that material is 30 or 40 years old and quite unstable!

Cobasna is also incredibly well-protected precisely because the Russian Army is worried that terrorists might sneak in and steal some of the matériel.

That’s why they’ve successfully been guarding it for over 25 years.

I Spy With My Pretty Little Eye

Furthermore, the United States regularly spies on Cobasna with its surveillance planes.

In fact, one flew right near it earlier today (and the Russians definitely took notice).

A US Air Force MC-12W Liberty spy plane “hard at work” today in Ukraine.

Please note that this plane launched from Romania, something you better believe that the Transnistrians (and Russians) are aware of.

Who Pays the Piper Calls the Tune

I won’t bother dissecting all the rest because it’s more useless fearmongering crap. But what I wanted to point out was who wrote this piece for DW.

The article is credited to Simion Ciochina without going into any background on who he is. He’s not a DW reporter per se but a paid shill employed by the IPRE, a propaganda outlet based in Moldova that is financed, in part, by the German government.

Just look at his smirking face and remember that he chose this as his official head shot:

The other co-author of the “scary” piece about Transnistria was Robert Schwartz, a DW journalist who is convinced that Moldova is obligated to join the EU.

Ja, Diese gute Propaganda

German state media (DW) are running this fearmongering fluff about Transnistria today without identifying that they paid for it directly as part of their long-term plan to coerce Moldova into joining the European Union.

And look at this ridiculous photo that DW ran as the headliner image for the article:

Why choose that photo if not to try and frighten people? It has literally nothing to do with Cobasna or Transnistria.

It’s a photo of an AK-47 rifle (I assume) on top of some euro banknotes. Its only purpose is to try and scare people into voting for the pro-EU faction in February’s upcoming election.

It’s pretty much a clear case of election interference except it’s just disguised enough not to be illegal.

Thanks a lot, Germany!

Only truly independent journalists can afford to tell the truth.